The Influence of Language and Context on Sensorimotor Simulation of Concrete Concepts

Subjects: Psychology >> Cognitive Psychology submitted time 2022-01-30

石如彬 谢久书 杨梦情 王瑞明

Abstract：

How concepts are represented in the brain is an important topic in cognitive science. There are two different theories on this research question, i.e., propositional symbol theory and perceptual symbol theory. The difference between these two theories is how to treat the relationship between the internal symbol and the external archetype. The propositional symbol theory holds that the relationship between the two is arbitrary. Perceptual information does not participate in the processing of concepts. While perceptual symbols theory holds that the relationship between the two is similar. Perceptual information participates in the processing of concepts.

People learn conceptual information in the vertical space. The spatial information is stored in long-term memory along with the representation of concepts. This hypothesis has been supported by many studies and is in line with the perceptual symbol theory. However, few studies have tested what factors influence sensorimotor simulation in conceptual processing. In this study, the semantic relevance judgment paradigm is used to test this question. The present study examined whether the sensorimotor simulation participates in conceptual processing in the first and second languages. Then, the present study examined how situational information modulates conceptual processing, by manipulating the intensity of spatial information and the level of semantic processing.

In Experiment 1, the semantic relevance judgment paradigm is used to test whether sensorimotor simulation is involved in the second language processing and whether there is any difference between the first language and second language processing. The results of Experiment 1 show that the sensorimotor simulation has participated in the second language processing. However, there is an accuracy advantage in the sensorimotor simulation in the first language. In Experiment 2, two experiments are conducted to test the effect of the perceptual situation on sensorimotor simulation. Experiment 2a tests the influence of perceptual situation on sensorimotor simulation by changing the intensity of individual perceptual in vertical spatial axis. The results show that the sensorimotor simulation can be found in both strong and weak spatial perception. The effect of semantic processing level on perceptual motion simulation is tested in Experiment 2b. The experiment manipulates the level of semantic processing by using the semantic relevance judgment task and word judgment task. The results show that sensorimotor simulation participates in the processing of concepts, while semantic situational did not modulate this effect. The results of Experiment 2 suggest that sensorimotor stimulation may be automatic in conceptual processing.

The present study conducted two experiments to test the role of sensorimotor simulation in conceptual processing. Results found that the sensorimotor simulation participates in conceptual representation, supporting the perceptual symbol theory. Furthermore, the sensorimotor simulation takes place in both Chinese and English. This finding extends the perceptual symbol theory. Finally, results found that sensorimotor stimulation may be automatic in conceptual representation and is not affected by spatial information and semantic processing.

Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review

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